My gratitude diary. My happiness jar. A small list of things that have enriched some moments making them memorable and my life that much more enjoyable. Time to thank and celebrate each one of them...
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Saturday, 27 July 2013

It seems ironical to write about Tea, after writing about such
a significant influence on my childhood and psyche like ACK – but this blog is
about things both big and small, the trivial and the significant – all that
have in their small or big ways helped enrich my life both intellectually,
spiritually as well as provided me relief, succour etc.

I was in Colombo earlier this year on a company led
jamboree, and there were about a 100 of us. In one of the most natural group formations, another
vegetarian and I were hanging around together. He was a Gujarati, and by the
first afternoon, he was dying for chaai.

Friday, 26 July 2013

An important part of my childhood,
and one of the most defining contributions would be that of Amar Chitra Katha
comics.My generation in fact owes
significant gratitude to the founder Anant Pai for helping shape our thoughts
and opinions, and also educating us about history and folklore.

It is inevitable, so let me
declare that I don’t have any relation to Mr. Pai, but have basked in the
rub-off of having the same surname.So
when I refer to him as ‘Uncle Pai’ it is only using the name by which he was popularly
called.

As the story goes the founder was
quite disappointed to see students at a quiz not able to answer questions on
Indian History but cracking all questions related to the US. (This was in the
70s – decades before the internet, telecom and liberalisation –so history is
what we had a lot of!)

For long, I have been sold on to
the dry Brit wit and ‘humour’ – condescending
(‘interesting’ they would say – you can only guess what that meant!).From sitcoms to fashion, there are sooo many
countless and creative ways to put someone or yourself down (watch the fashion reviews of
the red carpet for any event and you know what I mean!).

However, in life there is so much
to be grateful for, and one should really count their blessings and privileges.
This therefore is a small, well not small but pretty large collection of ‘these
are a few of my favourite things’.I can
tell you this will not get too philosophical or spiritual, but let me warn you
it might get schmaltzy, nostalgic and melancholic. And for sure, there's going to be lots and lots of foods and drinks that shall pitch in (so if you're on a diet plan stay away!)Would encourage each one of us to make their
own gratitude dairies.(the logo image was sourced from http://www.synergyart.co.uk/category/coca-cola)